The Metro Vancouver region is “something of a curiosity in the energy transition,” finds a new report.
The report, “From Strength to Scale: How Metro Vancouver Can Capture Economic Opportunity in the Global Energy Transition,” hails from The Zero Emissions Innovation Centre, a BC-based independent non-profit.
ZEIC’s report suggests that—despite “foundational advantages in clean electricity, years of strong ranking as a cleantech innovator, and extremely talented local implementers”—the region has yet to “fully commit to electrification as an economic strategy or to realize the full potential capitalizing on local successes as an export strategy.”
The result is that the region is “treading water” despite a “vibrant ecosystem of local providers looking for support.”
While the energy transition is described as a “global phenomenon,” the impact actually occurs “at the level of community infrastructure.”
The report does note that more than $3.6 billion in urban electricity and thermal-energy infrastructure is under construction or proposed across Metro Vancouver.
It also suggests that distributed energy resources—such as batteries, solar, and demand-response technologies—could reduce BC’s peak electricity demand by up to 10%.
When it comes to developing urban clean energy, Metro Vancouver has “good bones,” according to the report, including access to reliable clean electricity, investments in new technologies, anchor institutions, and an “innovation-focused policy environment.”
The region has “all the ingredients” but could do more to connect infrastructure spending with local innovation, procurement, demonstration projects, and export growth, ZEIC suggests, as energy planning and economic currently development remain “too separate.”
Metro Vancouver’s opportunity is to turn “infrastructure investments into a more deliberate economic-development strategy.” The next step is to create clear market signals around electrification and pair together local deployment with global export ambitions, according to the report.
Ambition will be key, indeed, and not just for global exports. For example, ZEIC’s report shows that the region will need nearly 400,000 charging stations in private buildings by 2050; the current figure is roughly 25,000.
Throughout the text, “From Strength to Scale” repeats a simple refrain: the pieces of the puzzle are already on the table, and it’s time to place them together strategically.
Those puzzle pieces include “low-carbon electricity, strong technical talent, a globally connected port,
sophisticated policymakers, and a growing base of firm working in urban clean energy.”
But, without an integrated energy-and-economy strategy, the region “risks becoming experts in deploying others’ solutions, without getting a slice of the much larger global economic pie.”
Capitalizing on this position will require more than just investment, according to the report. It will also “demand focus and coordination across players in the economy.”